Half-Year Review – My Favorite Books of 2017 (so far)

This post is a little late in arriving, and my blog has been very quiet these last few weeks. I’m dealing with some big Life Stuff at the moment which saps all energy right out of me. I can’t concentrate, which means I can’t read, which means I can’t write either. I don’t really know how to deal with my situation at the moment but maybe just sitting down and telling you about all the wonderful books I have read this year will help.

2017 has been a good reading year. My favorite part – and one that led me to a lot of new books I would have otherwise overlooked – has been the Read Diverse 2017 challenge. I’ve mentioned it every time I reviewed a book I read for the challenge and I’ll continute mentioning it because I am having so much fun participating. Any year with a new Cat Valente book is by default a good year, and so far we’ve gotten one slim novel with another middle grade one coming up in September. I also stuck my toe in the waters of Urban Fantasy again and Mishell Baker proved to me that, yeah, there’s stuff in that sub-genre that even I like. Plus, I disocvered a new author that immediately went to my favorites list (Katherine Arden) and a book that totally stole my heart.

So here they are, my favorite books of the year so far (not all published this year):

This has been my absolute favorite book of the year so far and I can’t think of any part of it I didn’t adore. It has great characters, beautiful language, a story steeped in Russian myth and fairy tales, and even fantastic villains. And the cover art is gorgeous. I pre-ordered the sequel before I even finished this book and I can’t wait to read more about Vasya and her family.

I probably liked this one so much because I had had written off Laini Taylor as “just not for me”. Then she comes along with these three stories that are each so perfect and beautifully written that I couldn’t help but fall in love. The mix of fairy tale flavor with original monsters and mythology was just what I needed. In this case, I think the cover is pretty terrible and misleading, so if you’re shying away from this book because of the cover, maybe look past that and give it a chance.

I now read Urban Fantasy! I am so proud. Mishell Baker’s heroine Millie is a double amputee suicide survivor with Borderline Personality Disorder. Oh, and she also stumbles into a job that involves policing traffic between our world and Fairyland. Although it may sound depressing (suicide survivor who lost her legs… that’s not exactly most people’s dream), these books are among the most hopeful, uplifing stories I have ever read. They are fast-paced, the characters are all complex, and the internal magic is quite intriguing.

You can say what you want about Sanderson but he does the epic part in Epic Fantasy really well. This is the second book in the Stormlight Archive series which I enjoyed again as a Graphic Audio book. Although it means waiting about six to twelve months longer for the next instalment, I will continue following Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, and Adolin in audiobook format. It’s difficult to say much about the plot without giving stuff away, but there’s just so much to discover on every layer of this book. The world building is insane, all the characters grow, and there are huge battles.

Come on, how could I not love an AI security unit that freed itself from its restraints, not to go on a killing rampage (despite calling itself Murderbot) but to watch endless hours of soap operas? This was one of the most refreshing, heartwarming things I read all year, and it’s set in a future that has a ton of possibilities for sequels. Murderbot stole my heart and became much more than a machine. It’s a full character with likes and dislikes, loyalty, and even fondness towards us silly humans.

It took me long enough to read Palimpsest but it was exactly the kind of experience I hoped it would be. Almost like falling into a dream filled with imagery and deep meaning, there isn’t much plot, but damn was this a beautiful book.The Refrigerator Monologues may have been short and it may not give us the happy endings we would have liked for our various comic book heroines, villainesses, and superheroes’ girlfriends. But it does give them a voice and show that they are much more than just sidekicks or means to an end. I think that is important and, written with Valente’s incredible skill, also a lot of fun to read. You know, the kind of fun that is also heart-breaking.

Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples – Saga Volume Seven

Saga continues to go strong. There have been a couple of issues in this series that I didn’t unabashedly love but the overall experience is still overwhelmingly positive. This latest collection was way up there again and it delivers exactly what the series has come to be known for. Great art, amazing characters, a thrilling story that doesn’t shy away from… well, anything really. This is probably my favorite comic series, along with Fables, of all time.

Challenge stats

I’ve technically already reached my goal for my Fairy Tale Retellings challenge. The plan was to read five to eight books and I’ve read six, plus I’m about to finish one more.
Against all expectations, I have also reached my Read Around the World goal, with 5 books read, all set in different places in the world.
I am a little behind on my New Books of 2017 challenge. Although I didn’t set a specific goal, I am working toward 20 books, and so far I’ve read only seven.
There’s even more catching up to do on my Speculative Fiction Authors of Color challenge. I have only read four books so far, but in my defense, I started another one which turned out to be horrible. I may just write a DNF review about that because I can’t stomach the last 40% of that book… But, number one goal for the rest of the year – prioritize Authors of Color!

The Read Diverse 2017 challenge is the one I most enjoy (I may have said this a few hundred times before…) and my goal here is to post 30 reviews of diverse reads, simply because that’s the number you need to reach to receive the final blog button. 🙂
Obviously, surpassing this goal would be great and I’ll do my very best, but if I fill this blog with 30 reviews of diverse authors and stories in one year, I’ll consider this a huge success, even without the button.

Overall, Goodreads tells me I am now 7 books behind my reading goal for the year. I already set that goal pretty low at 84 books and being that far behind is a little crushing, to be honest.

But, I am in the middle of about 8 books right now, so if I find the energy to finally finish them, I should be right back on track. Wish me luck!

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6 thoughts on “Half-Year Review – My Favorite Books of 2017 (so far)”

I also loved The Bird and the Nightingale, and I’m really enjoying Read Diverse 2017. Are you receiving badges? I’ve posted 10 reviews and haven’t gotten one. 30 sounds like a great goal! I’m also in two Read Around the World challenges which helps with diverse reading.